Verizon officially announces 4G LTE; lights go on December 5th

No real surprises came from Verizon's press event today. Their 4G LTE network is officially starting up in 38 cities and 60 airports across the U.S. starting December 5th. Verizon states it will cover "one third of Americans." $50 will get you 5GB of data a month while $80 a month will get you 10GB.

According to Verizon, customers can expect 5-12Mbps downstream and 2-5Mbps upstream in "real-world, loaded network environments." Current phones are not currently compatible with LTE; Verizon is making the LG VL600 USB adapter available at launch to take advantage of LTE with the Pantech UML290 coming later. More "consumer oriented" devices are expected to get some face time at CES next month. Check out the full list of covered areas after the break.